VideoGameAccountant said:
I disagree. Generations are going to get shorter, not longer, thanks to a major system everyone in this thread is pretending doesn't exist: the PC. Look at it this way. Let's say I care about graphics and performance. Should I get the PS4 Pro? Or should I get "the most powerful console ever," the XBox One X. How about, instead, I just build a PC. With a PC, I can build a system that runs 4K at 60 FPS. Sure, right now you might spend more to build this PC, but prices on parts go down quickly, and it wont be long before you can build a PC that outdoes the Pro for less than what Sony is selling the Pro for. By 2022, as you suggested, you'd get a far better PC for cheaper. In Febuary of 2017, Logical Incriments had a build for $415 that would be about as good as the PS4 Pro. They also provided a system that was better than the PS4 Pro for $550. By 2019, that $550 build could easily be cheaper than a Pro. Sure, Sony can drop the price, but if performance is a big selling point already, then why not spend a bit more and get more. Keep in mind that PCs are also cheaper to upgrade as oppose to buying a new system. With Sony and Microsoft going the route of power and performance, they will have to compete with the PC. Even back in 2013, not every game was coming to the PC or the PC would have the worst version. Now, almost every game that isn't first party will come to the PC and the PC will be the best versions. Developers are already complaining that the consoles are holding them back. Unlike Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft don't have a strong portfolio of IPs that can draw customers in. They are highly reliant on 3rd parties to provide the software for their systems. Sony is at risk of having their market being absorbed by PC. By focusing on power, customers may make the jump to PC as the PC offer a better library (including previous generation games) and offers better performance. If Playstation's hook is "Our games look the best," then consumers will go to where they do look the best: PC. This is partly why the Pro exist in the first place. Sony needs to compete with PC, where better parts keep coming out older parts get cheaper, and the half-step with the Pro is how they do it. The PS5 will likely be a another half-step to complete with the PCs you can build then. Again, by the time 2022 rolls around, the PS4 Pro will be a joke in terms of performance. Sony will have to compete with the constant incrimental improvements that are seen in the PC world. The half-steps are how they do it. Expect the generations (for Sony at least) to move in tandum with PC parts. Expect the generations to be shorter. |
If sony pursues that, they are fools. PCs have always been this way. Chasing PC is pointless because building your own PC will virtually always be more cost effective because golly gee it turns out DIY is cheaper than off the shelf.
Consoles are about easy, off the shelf convenience and guaranteed support. That's how they carved out a massive market despite PCs. That's how they killed Arcades despite arcade cabinets being much more powerful at the time. The fact you cqn build or have built a better PC for more bang for buck doesn't matter because the target market of consoles doesn't care. They want to pickup a console, plug it in, fire it up and that's it. They want that convenience.
Chasing PC will just result in rapidly decreasing appeal in each mini gen as each leap is markedly less impressive than the already unimpressive PS4 to Pro jump (in the eyes of the market, not to me necessarily).
And diminishing returns effects PCs too. It's not like it doesn't apply there. Yeah you could marginally outclass the Pro for 400 in a year or two if you have one built. It will be a pitifully small real world performance difference.
Oh and people also don't generally like plugging their PC into their TV. Which is where consoles are deliberately targeted.
Generations need to get longer. If Sony goes for 2 year gens or some nonsense, it will be a colossal train wreck. And the sales performance of the Pro I think guarantees they won't go that route.
